The Toadstools......

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8:21 am - Wednesday - November 1st - Lone Rock - 51º F, humidity 56%, wind 8 mph out of the west.....forecast high for today is 74º F in paradise.....clear blue skies.  Woke up this morning to a 90% state of charge on our house batteries!

We were up a little later than normal Tuesday, but that's okay, right?  We're retired....we have no schedule.....at least for another week (we begin working our new job November 7th).  We have kept ourselves on Utah, or Mountain Time even though we are less than 1 mile from the Arizona border.  That means sunrise is not until after 8 am, which, in turn, means we usually don't get out of bed until after 8 am.  So, you might be wondering why we don't just switch out clocks over to Arizona time and get it over with.  Well, we have been living under Mountain time since mid June and we just hate having to adjust our internal clocks any sooner than we must.  We will be moving the Newell into Page, AZ on Wednesday, and driving the VW to SoCal on Thursday for the wedding I wrote about yesterday, so until then we are still on Mountain time baby!

Driving south on US-89 a week ago we passed a turnout called the 'Toadstools Trailhead'....I remarked to TLE that we should drive back there later in our Lone Rock stay and do the hike and see what the 'Toadstools' were all about.  Well, Tuesday became that day.  The trailhead is about 17 miles north of Lone Rock, and we arrived there in less than 20 minutes.

The Toadstools Trailhead is part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  According the trailhead sign the round trip hike to the Toadstools is 1.6 miles.....essentially an 'out and back' hike.  

Within minutes of entering the trail you notice the stratification in the surrounding hills....rarely do we see stratification like this......all the layers are pretty much parallel to the surrounding terrain.....usually we see it on the diagonal......

.....basically, after the first 100 yards the trail mostly seems to follow a dry wash as it twists and turns through the canyon gradually gaining altitude.....our total elevation gain was about 150'.  The other thing we noticed almost immediately is it was very hard to follow the trail.  It appears that people just walk wherever they wish making it very difficult to figure out which trail was 'THE' trail.  All that being said, no matter which trail you followed you would end up at the same place eventually.  

Within 20 minute we arrived at the 'Toadstools'........

.....yup, they do look sort of like 'toadstools'.   Here's my take on this hike.....if we hadn't just spent 3 days hiking in Bryce Canyon I think we would have appreciated this hike more, but frankly, Bryce Canyon is chock full of 'hoodoo' features just like these.  Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable hike, and the weather was perfect.  My Strava program showed we hiked just over 1.7 miles round trip.....no doubt we were off 'THE' trail on a few occasions....:-)

We arrived back at the coach around 1:30 where we both sat down to do some more reading.  Around 4 pm we decided to take our 'out and back' hike out to US-89, but limited it to just 3.3 miles since we had already hiked 1.7 miles earlier.  We tried to time our hike to arrive back at the coach in time for our 'happy hour' fire, but by the time we returned the wind had picked up nixing that idea.

After watching Game 5 of the World Series until almost midnight Sunday night I decided to not watch game 6, but keep track of the game on my smart phone.  As it turned out the Dodgers prevailed 3-1 and have sent this years 'Series' to game 7 Wednesday night.  It was much less stressful not watching game 6, but I am sure I will be tuned in Wednesday night for game 7....winner take all!

We watched more 'Mad Men' episodes until about 11 pm before heading to bed.....Wednesday is moving day!

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The daily reader......

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8:58 am - Tuesday - October 31st - Lone Rock - 59º F, humidity 33%, wind 3 mph out of the west by northwest.....partly cloudy with a forecast high of 75º F.  State of battery charge was 87% at 8:40 am this morning.

After the marathon game 5 of the World Series which had our TV on until almost midnight our batteries were at 88% to begin Monday.....the lowest they've been since we arrived at Lone Rock.  On top of that the forecast, for the first time, was for partly cloudy skies meaning that getting back to 100% on our house batteries would be iffy.  Now, even when there is total overcast our solar panels will still put some charge into our batteries, but getting back to 100% is not going to happen under those circumstances.  Nonetheless, we did get back to 97% by 3:30 pm, and that is as far as they got.

For a change we did not take a walk, and we did not go into town......we just sat home reading all day long.....well, let me revise that a little.....TLE read all day long.....I spent the morning cleaning our bug spattered windshield, cleaning bugs off our air horn 'trumpets' and our front cap, greasing the wheel bearings on our 26' enclosed car hauler trailer, vacuuming out the back seat of the VW (we hauled 4 bundles of firewood from the local gas station the other day), checking the oil and coolant levels in the VW for our upcoming trip back to SoCal for the wedding of our dear friend Amanda, and finished by sweeping out the trailer.  By that time it was around 1:30 and then I spent the rest of the day reading. 

It's the end of October and the National Park Service folk are beginning to winterize the facilities here at Lone Rock, which means turning off the water very soon.....we are hoping the water stays on at the dump station until after we depart on Wednesday, November 1st.  If it is turned off before we leave then there is a place in Page we can dump, but it's not nearly as convenient, obviously.

We were outside enjoying happy hour by the fire by 5:15 pm.......with the cloudiness there was not the usual light show, but we thoroughly enjoyed the view, nevertheless........

.....we got a little bit of color just after 7 pm, but that was the extent of the light show for the evening......

......since I no longer watch the NFL, and the only thing on Monday nights that we would, in the past, have watched was Monday Night Football, so we decided to spend the evening watching a few more episodes of 'Mad Men' Season 3......I love 'Unlimited Data'!

We were in bed before 11 pm.....thanks for stopping by!

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"The world has moved on......"

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8:29 am - Monday - October 30th, Lone Rock - 54º F, humidity 29%, wind 3 mph out of the west by northwest.......partly cloudy at sunrise.  Forecast high for today is 74º F, with partly cloudy skies.....charging the batteries via sun power will be interesting today.

Once again, upon awaking, I checked the state of charge for our house batteries on our Blue Sky monitoring system to find them at 89%......by 1 pm they were at 100%.  The combination of having the four solar panels now, and the ideal weather conditions (not too cold at night, and not too hot during the day) make for a perfect solar charging scenario.  Low temps in the 40's at night means the battery discharge will not be great (cold temps cause any batteries to discharge more quickly), and moderate daily temps in the 70's means there will not be too much heat which tends to inhibit the charging efficiency of solar panels.  Of course, what we are always chasing in this life style is the perfect weather......t-shirt, shorts and flip flop weather.......how nice that it is also the perfect weather for solar panels and boondocking!

We had no big aspirations for Sunday.....there is no NFL football being watched, so once again I had Sunday free.  I chose to finish Book 5 of Steven King's 'The Dark Tower' 7 book series.  I first discovered this series back in 2004, or 5.....I was sitting in an airport waiting for a flight.  Back then I always made sure I had a book to read on the plane as I really hate flying.....it's not that I'm afraid of flying, but I get bored, and reading helps pass the time more quickly.  Anyway, there I am needing a book before it's time to board our flight to Wisconsin and I spy a small store across the concourse which has newspapers and books, so I walk over to see what they have that might interest me.  I like reading westerns, and I immediately saw a book entitled 'The Gunslinger' with a cover picture of a cowboy with a gun in his hand.....okay, who it the author?  I turn the book over and it says Stephen King and there is a picture of Stephen King.  I am not a fan of Stephen King, but I was intrigued.....he wrote a western?  Well, I bought book and began to read it on the flight to Wisconsin......as one might expect with Stephen King involved, this is not really a 'Western' in the 'Western Genre' sense.    I also quickly discovered that it was not just an isolated book, but the first book in a seven book series called 'The Dark Tower'.  As the flight progressed I became captivated by the premise of the book, and series.  I finished the book within a day of landing in Wisconsin......I had to find the next two, or three books to keep reading so I drove over to the local Barnes and Noble and found they had books 2, 3 and 4 in paperback so I bought them on the spot.  To make long story a little shorter I finished reading book 6 just after we returned home from our Wisconsin visit, and found out that Book 7 had just been released in hardback (how timely for me, no?)......I found a copy at a local SoCal Barnes and Noble and purchased it for $60.....I had to see how it ended, right?  Well, that is the tale of my 3 week obsession with the 'Dark Tower' series back in 2004.  

So, fast forward to late last year when I heard the Dark Tower series was being made into a movie/TV series, and then I found out my grandson, Elijah (Kate's son), was reading the series, so I decided to read them again so he and I could talk about them when we were in town periodically.  I've been re-reading them quite slowly, and feel like I am getting more out of them this time around.....Kate says he is in the middle of Book 5 - 'Wolves of the Calla', which is the book I just finished.  I started to ready Book 6 - Song of Susannah around 2 pm when TLE said......"we need to take our walk"......uh, oh yeah!  So we changed our clothes and set out on a 4.2 mile walk at a fast pace....I think we averaged around 16 minutes, 23 seconds a mile for that distance, or about 3.7 mph.....WOW, no wonder I was a tad beat when we got back!

By the time we returned, and cooled down it was closing in on 3:30 pm......TLE had mentioned earlier that we should go out for dinner, which we have not done in quite a while, so around 4 pm we jumped in the VW and headed into Page to El Tapatio (4 stars on 483 reviews) Mexican Restaurant for an early dinner.....what a great decision that was.....

....we both ordered their Jumbo 'Original' House Margarita......and to accompany that wonderful Margarita I ordered a combo plate with two Chile Relleños.  TLE ordered their Pollo de Diablo.......

TLE's Pollo de Diablo and my dish in the background

......it's good to be back in Arizona where it is easy to find very good Mexican food!  We would wholeheartedly agree with the 4 star rating.  By the time we finished we were stuffed!  We were home by 5:45 pm putting on looser fitting clothing and, for me, taking a nice long nap!

We watched game 5 of the World Series in which the Dodgers blew a 4 run lead, a 3 run lead, and a 1 run lead.  They entered their last at bat (top of the 9th) trailing the Astros 12-9, but managed to score three to tie the game at 12-12.  The Astros ultimately won the game in the bottom of the 10th 13-12......the pitching for both teams was abysmal, as one might expect with 25 runs being scored, and 7 home runs.  Naturally I was an unhappy camper at just before midnight when the game finally ended.  But, as I have said before, it's only sports, not real life.

Going back to 'no NFL football being watched'.....it has been about a month since I stopped watching the NFL, and cancelled my 'NFL Sunday Ticket' (DirecTV) due to the disrespect being shown by NFL players for our flag, our country and military entirely based on a false premise.  I have not watched a game since September 25th, and I am gradually getting used to having my Sunday's back to do other things.  Life is good, and the 'world has moved on' as Roland Deschain (Dark Tower Series main character) would say.

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Lone Rocking.......

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8:17 am - Thursday - Lone Rock Beach - 51º F, humidity 27%, wind 5 mph out of the west by northwest......not a breeze here at Lone Rock.  Our temperature at 8:17 am is higher than some of our 'high' temps the past week.....forecast high for today is 80º F with clear blue skies from horizon to horizon, and is it ever a big horizon!  When we went to bed our house batteries were at 93% of a full charge after 5 hours of TV, and no generator.  This morning they had only dropped to 89%.....one of the benefits of over night temps in the mid 40's.  We'll be back at 100% early afternoon!

8:17 am at Lone Rock Beach....the sun is just behind the rear of the trailer right now

Our Jello plan was to be on the road between 10 and 11 am Wednesday, and we were right on schedule to leave a little after 10 am....not bad.  It was still under 40º F at 10 am......BRRRR!!! Well, Mr. Jello reared his head and said..."Not so fast!".....as we always do, TLE was standing behind the trailer to check to be sure the turn signals, and brake lights were working......I turned on the left turn signal and got the 'thumbs up' from her, but when I turned on the right turn signal I got the 'thumbs down'.....rats!  We've had this happen before, but it has been a year, or more.  In the past it was just a matter of checking the connections of the right turn signal relay, and then they would start working.  So, I walked to the back of the Newell and opened up the door for the rear electrical panel and saw there was a much bigger problem......on of the wires coming out of the relay was FRIED.....all the insulation had melted off of it, and then I opened the right rear engine bay door and found another long wire (about 24") that was toast also.  "Okay" I'm thinking.....I have extra wire and connectors and can fix this.  Well, after replacing both wires and all the connectors I still could not get the turn signal to work.  After about an hour I decided we would just head down to Lone Rock Beach where we would be near an automotive supply store and continue my troubleshooting there.  I figured all we had were left turns all the way to Lone Rock, and the left turn signal was working.

We finally departed Ruby's Inn/RV Park a little after 11 am and began our 140+ mile drive southward on US-89.  We began our day at 7,664' above sea level, and by the time we arrived at Lone Rock Beach some three hours later we were at 4,000' above sea level......the outside air was a balmy 75º F.......what a change from three hours earlier!

While I was tilting our solar panels, and dialing in our DirecTV signal I looked up to see a 2002 Newell (2 slides) just parking......it is so rare to see another Newell, let alone to find ones self parked just 100 feet away from one in such a remote place......

2002 Newell 2 slide 

.....we both noticed the other's rig almost immediately, and began walking towards each other......the owner's name is Mussy (sp?), and he is a member of our Newell Gurus forum.....and the world gets smaller!  TLE and I chatted with him for about 10 minutes before we bid each other adieu and returned to our set up routines......very, very cool!

We were last at Lone Rock Beach in March of 2015.  Back then Lake Powell, on which shores we sit, was at it's lowest point since the Glen Canyon Dam was built.  I have retrieved a picture from that time period and put a red arrow which points to a dark line on Lone Rock.....in the picture I took this morning you can see that the water level is almost to that dark line on the rock now.......

 March, 2015

October, 2017

......it appears that the lake level has risen by close to 10 feet in the last 31 months.....has it really been two and a half years since we last here?  

The terraced pad where we usually park when we are here at Lone Rock was a little crowded this time around , but we were able to 'shoe horn' ourselves into a nice spot which will afford us some privacy......

......by 5 pm we were sitting outside with cocktails enjoying the early evening view of Lone Rock and Lake Powell.....it's as if we were just here yesterday........

.....a little after 6 pm we went inside to watch game two of the World Series.....it was a great game that the Dodgers should have won, but their bullpen failed big time....the game was tied 3-3 going into the 10th when the Astros hitters hit back to back homeruns to take a 5-3 lead.....the Dodgers responded in the bottom of the 10th with a solo homerun, and then a 2 out single to score a man from second to once again tie the game.  In the top of the 11th the Astros added two more runs with a two run homerun to go up 7-5.  In the bottom of the 11th the Dodgers got another solo homerun to pull with in one run, but is how it ended......it's going to be an interesting series!

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"Wind it down!"

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7:11 am - Wednesday - October 25th - Bryce Canyon - 25º F, humidity 65%, wind 7 mph out of the west......forecast is for sunny skies and a high of 65º F on this getaway day....yup, time to move further south!

After three days of hiking in and out of the amazing Bryce Canyon our legs were telling us it was time for an off day, and time to "wind it down" as my friend Roscoe would often say this summer.  There was a part of me that wanted to hike one more day, but that part did not include my tired legs.  Instead I spent time cleaning the trailer....I hadn't vacuumed it for about a month, and the folded up artificial turf needed to be turned around to make it easier to insert the VW.  On top of that I discovered my Cannondale Bad Boy had another rear flat tire.....why, why, why is it always the rear tire?  So, after TLE and I pulled the turf out of the trailer I set up the bike stand to fix the flat.  Fortunately I had bought a few new tubes while we were still in South Lake Tahoe.  At any rate, I fixed the flat, put away the bike stand once again, and then TLE and I turned the turf around, and pulled it back into the now clean trailer.

Once that was done we decided to make a quick run over to see Mossy Cave.  It was only about 5 miles away, and we were in the parking 10 minutes later.  According to the sign at the beginning of the trail it is .4 miles to Mossy Cave, and it was pretty close.....our round trip total distance was .9 miles according to my Strava program........just enough to loosen up our legs a tad.......

The sedimentary layer next to the water is sooo pink I had to take a picture

.......it took us about 12 minutes to reach the cave.....I've no doubt this cave is more fascinating in the spring time, but on this day in late October it was a little disappointing.....not much moss, and very little water dripping from the ceiling....

......we took our obligatory pictures and then walked back to see the the waterfall that was mentioned on the sign at the fork in the trail.....

.....the main waterfall was almost dry, which, again is not surprising as it is so late in the year.....I'm sure it is more impressive during the spring and early summer months......

You can just barely see the trickle of water going over the waterfall

.......Mossy Cave is considered to be part of Bryce Canyon National Park, and so it is also not surprising that more 'hoodoos' can be found at this location........

....we were back home by 1 pm, at which time I decided to wash the VW.....it has been at least 6 weeks since I have done that, and she was looking pretty sad.  I filled one of our Rubbermaid wash tubs with water and with the help of a large sponge and a couple of micro fiber towels got her looking her best again.....I finished the job by vacuuming out the interior, then it was time to put away our Sea-B-Que, and top off the fresh water supply in preparation for 8 days of living off the grid!  Time to light the fires and move south!

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